Fraudster left Grantham woman penniless

Whatley said the fraudster tricked her into putting £20,000 into a second bank account by saying it would be “safe there”.

However, he then then bombarded her smartphone with requests to approve transactions, which he said would safeguard the money.

In fact, Whatley’s money landed in an account controlled by the fraudster.

She said: “They get you a little bit like a rabbit in headlights. You can’t think, you can’t get to understand what you’re doing. I know that sounds crazy, but they get you so confused.”

Gillian Fleet, Fraud Protect and Crime Reduction coordinator for Lincolnshire Police, said crimes like these are “a daily occurrence, unfortunately.”

According to Report Fraud, a national police programme that collates fraud data, £3.9bn was stolen from 708,715 people in the UK in the year to June 2026.

However, Fleet said stigma still surrounds fraud.

She said: “Belinda coming and talking about what’s happened is absolutely amazing.”

“If you were a victim of a burglary, you would tell all your friends so that it didn’t happen to them. But lots of people don’t talk about fraud because, as Belinda said earlier, she felt embarrassed by what happened.

“The more people talk about it, hopefully we can raise awareness and stop more people becoming victims.”